[TLDR (too long didn’t read): If you are reading this, chances are you care about HR. This Reader is about the ups and downs we face in building punching HR coalitions. For a quick overview, just read the bolded text]. Traducir/traduire los/les Readers; usar/utiliser deepl.com
1. Key to the effectiveness of all political initiatives is and has been the creation of broad-based unity of democratic political and social actors combined with a forward-looking, popular agenda that captures people’s imagination. This not just entails agreeing on agendas encompassing ‘negative’ forms of resistance, for instance, saying ‘no to neofascism’. It rather seeks building a combined opposition to autocratic power and anti-people policies by proposing a wide alternative range of people-centered socio-political proposals that are appealing as a positive counter-narrative.
2. Ultimately, movements have to have a ‘mass political’ character uniting diverse classes and social sectors of society around shared concerns; but this has to be with a political edge that may have to transcend conventional Left parties’ platforms.*
*: Do not underestimate: The consciousness of vast masses of people can change radically in a matter of months through such upsurges, i.e., overcoming apathy of decades via forming popular, inclusive and progressive social-class alliances. Such alliances are to include a pool of a range of subjugated classes and groups (e.g., workers, small farmers, marginal cultivators, students, sections of the middle class) and other oppressed social sectors of society (e.g., women, indigenous people, Afro-Latinos, LGBTQ persons, etc.) who can and ought to, together, become a powerful transformative force adopting a positive counter-narrative. This combination is critical as a staunch opposition to policies of any neofascist regime by proposing such a range of alternative policies.
3. Political interventions like these have, in the past, drawn upon recent mass political movements (for example in Chile the widespread protests on cost of living and privatization in 2019-20; in Colombia the uprising in 2021 related to regressive taxes and privatization of healthcare; and in Brazil the large-scale protests in 2021 against Jair Bolsonaro regarding mishandling of the COVID epidemic, the wide economic crisis and corruption). These movements had a ‘mass political’ character since they had a broad, societal base rather than a sectoral or single-class base; they involved and united diverse classes and social sectors of the population around shared concerns, as said, with a political edge. These kinds of alliances can indeed build upon political grievances and transcend single-class movements (e.g., unionized workers’ struggles), as well as individual sectoral struggles (e.g., movements of indigenous people).
4. As noted in each of these examples, developing unity of a wide range of existing democratic organizations is critical. (However, having the broadest possible unity is not really a pre-condition for initiating political interventions; the ultimate unity can be preceded by pre-election mobilizations, for example). Wider unity may emerge only over time and with increasing joint mobilizations. Relatively small, but well organized, political formations have, in the past, had a forward-looking vision, and have then woven broader alliances including several Left and Center-left parties and formations.
5. The idea is not just to critique and oppose the present regime, but also to present a convincing, comprehensive set of alternative policies envisioning the structure of a new, more just society that will challenge the constrictions of so-called democracy while offering resistance to state repression.
6. It is a must that each of the mentioned alliances champion gender equity, social justice and the inclusion of social sectors Capitalism has made vulnerable. (It is important to note that there is a growing convergence of exploited classes and oppressed ethnic and racial groups in these movements).
7. There is no doubt that large scale mobilization around all these axes is required, but preceded by a major effort to foster changes in popular consciousness. This can be done only by actively undermining and overcoming the cultural influence of the dominating neofascist discourse that often manipulates religious sentiments and identities.**
**: Neofascism and corporate-driven neoliberal capitalism are deeply integrated, with each reinforcing the other. Corporates provide massive financial resources to neofascist organizations, funding them to spread their propaganda and to recruit cadres. We cannot confront one without simultaneously challenging the other. Beware that our approaches to counter neofascism need to keep in view that neofascism comes with certain clever kinds of populist appeal.
Bottom line:
8. The overarching tasks ahead of us may thus be: First, constructing a shared socio-political identity of ‘we the people’. Second, elaborating a ‘national-popular’ program including concretizing a popular, inclusive and progressive ‘social-class alliance’. We, therefore, need further discussion about the unique nature of such mass political movements, a discussion that transcends some of the limitations of sectoral mass movements, as well as transcending conventional parties of the Left. It is important for such a popular front to enable an unequivocal expression of the genuine discontent being experienced by people, to strongly champion the interests of working people and of oppressed sectors of society.
9. Once the lines are clearly drawn between the exploited and the oppressed populations, on the one hand, and the exploitative rulers on the other hand, then the grounds can be created for various groups of people to combine their struggles with all their diversity. (All from A. Shukla)
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com
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